Knicks Win and Get What They Want: Matchup vs. Celtics

The scene was set Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden — for payback, for message-sending, for a modest celebration and for a timely, well-earned rest. All the Knicks needed on this first day of the final week of the season was a sound victory over the Indiana Pacers. That, and four quarters without anyone being bruised, battered or broken.

The Knicks got everything they wanted, and with a minimum of pain.

With a suspense-free 90-80 victory, they clinched the second seed in the Eastern Conference and secured home-court advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs, including a potential second-round meeting with the Pacers. The Knicks will open the playoffs Saturday against the seventh-seeded Boston Celtics — the team that swept them two springs ago, in Carmelo Anthony’s first postseason in New York.

“That’s in the back of our minds,” said Anthony, who scored 25 points. “We want to beat Boston — I mean, let’s be quite frank. This would be a great series for us.”

Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, who is injured, are the only Knicks left from that 2011 series. Yet the memory remains fresh, and for Anthony, painful.

A sweep was hardly the way he wanted to begin his career on Broadway. The Celtics have stood in the Knicks’ way ever since he arrived.

Two years later, the Knicks are deeper, wiser, more seasoned and better built for the challenge, with a veteran cast surrounding Anthony.

“We’re different as a team,” Anthony said. “As an organization, we’re a lot different than we were a year and a half, two years ago. The mind-set is a lot different. My mind-set right now is a lot different.”

There was also ample meaning in Sunday’s victory over the Pacers, who battled the Knicks all season for second place in the conference.

Indiana dealt the Knicks their worst loss of the season, a 34-point defeat Feb. 20, when it appeared the season might go off the rails. So there was a note of vengeance Sunday, and a message sent should they meet again in the conference semifinals.

Most important, the Knicks (53-27) emerged without a serious injury, although Anthony did bruise his left shoulder in the third quarter. He sat out the final period, but only because the Knicks did not need him.

Photo

The Knicks' Carmelo Anthony spent the fourth quarter on the bench after scoring 25 points.Credit
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

Coach Mike Woodson twice called Anthony over when the Pacers started to rally down the stretch.

Each time, the Knicks beat back the spurt, and Anthony returned, smiling, to his seat.

“I was just playing with him, messing with him,” Woodson said. “No, his shoulder’s fine. And I was going to put him back. But I decided to pull him and ride the guys that kept the lead for us.”

With the Knicks clinching the No. 2 seed — their highest since finishing second in 1994 — Woodson will now rest his key players for the final two games. Anthony said he would sit out Monday night’s game at Charlotte. Raymond Felton also said he planned to take a rest over the final two games.

Even if Anthony sits out the final two games, he is virtually assured of winning the scoring title, with 28.7 points a game.

Despite the loss, the Pacers (49-31) clinched the third seed when the Nets lost to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. Lance Stephenson, a Brooklyn product, led the Pacers with 22 points. But the Knicks controlled the game from the start, winning for the 15th time in 16 games.

The Knicks have the entire week to prepare for the banged-up Celtics (41-39), who remain a fierce defensive team despite their injuries and their low finish. The Knicks took the season series, 3-1, but Kevin Garnett missed the final two games.

By Saturday, the Knicks might actually have something resembling a full roster. Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin are on track to return by then, according to Woodson, who disclosed another bit of happy — and unexpected — news: Rasheed Wallace might be in uniform, too.

Wallace has been running the past few days, Woodson said, and he could make his return Monday or in Wednesday’s regular-season finale against the Atlanta Hawks. Wallace, who is recovering from foot surgery, has not played since Dec. 13.

That means the Knicks could open the postseason with 14 healthy bodies, the most they have had in months. Stoudemire, who is recovering from knee surgery, might return sometime in the first round.

“It’s a good feeling,” Felton said of securing the second seed, as well as the Atlantic Division title and a 50-win season. “Setting goals early in the year and accomplishing them is really big. We’re definitely happy. We’re not satisfied. We’re still looking at the big picture.”

REBOUNDS

Neither Tyson Chandler (neck) nor Kenyon Martin (ankle) is traveling with the team for Monday’s game, but both could return Wednesday night. ...Solomon Jones made his first start for the Knicks, to give them a bigger body against the Pacers’ Roy Hibbert. ...Although the full first-round schedule of the playoffs will not be published until Wednesday night, the Knicks’ first game has already been set for Saturday, based on the Garden’s availability: the Rangers have a game there at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, making it virtually impossible for the Knicks to play on that day.

A version of this article appears in print on April 15, 2013, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Knicks Win and Get What They Want: Matchup vs. Celtics. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe